Hands
by Anna Plurabelle
Summary: Broe-Live every day as if it were your last (single chapter fic)


Hands  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing…nada…Days of Our Lives is owned by NBC and whomever else who is evil enough to STILL not have Broe together. And the idea is inspired by a single scene from a recent episode of Angel.  
  
Dedicated to my soul sister Celandine, who supports me through ALL of my crazy fic ideas…  
  
  
  
"Hello?" Brady mumbled into his cell phone, having just woken from yet another dream of his "best friend" Chloe Lane.  
  
"Brady Black! You're not awake yet?" The girl of his dreams said, causing Brady to sit straight up, wide awake.  
  
"Chloe, its Saturday. I have off from work, you have off from school, we should be sleeping in late. But yes, I am now awake, and as matter of fact, on the couch, dressed." Brady said trying to smooth out his wrinkled suit.  
  
"Fall asleep in your suit after work while you were trying to watch your weekly rerun of Alias?" Chloe said knowingly, he could hear her smile spread across her beautiful face.  
  
"Oh, you think you know me so well." Brady said unable to control his smile either, she did know him so well, and they were truly meant to be together, if only he could get his act together and tell her so.  
  
"Black, you know I do! Now, as for your plans of sleeping in late, well I am sorry, but you are just going to have to cancel them. For I have planned a whole day, just the two of us."  
  
"Really, and what if I decide that I don't want to spend the day with you Lane?" Brady asked sarcastically, knowing full well that there would never be a day that he didn't want to spend with her. He wanted to spend everyday with her, from now until the end of time.  
  
"Well then I am very sorry, because you have no choice."  
  
"I guess if I have no choice then I must comply." Brady said standing up off of the sofa, heading towards the bathroom of his loft apartment, preparing to leave as quickly as possible to get Chloe.  
  
"Well then let's get started!" Chloe said, her voice filling the room as Brady turned back to face the door, and Chloe standing there; her long hair, loose and in curls, flowing around her, a vision in a simple pair of flared jeans, and a white peasant blouse.  
  
"I knew I should have never given you a key to the loft." Brady said grinning ear from ear, drinking in the sight of her.  
  
"Oh you know you love me." She said walking towards him, her hands behind her back.  
  
"And why would I do that?" Because you're my soulmate? And oh so many other reasons. Brady told himself as Chloe made her way to the couch pushing him down onto the couch.  
  
"Because I brought pancakes from the pub!" She said reaching around from behind her back and handing him a Styrofoam container as she sat down next to him.  
  
"See, I knew there was a reason!" He said smiling as he opened up the container, gasping as he saw its contents. "And she even remembered the whip cream!"  
  
"How could I forget? Now hurry up, because you have still got to get into the shower, because I am not spending the whole day with you when you smell this bad!" Chloe said nudging him as he inhaled the pancakes.  
  
"Fine, fine whatever." He mumbled between bites. Swallowing slowly he looked up into her cerulean eyes. "Aren't you going to have some."  
  
"Nah, I ate before I got here, I knew you would inhale everything else on your own." Looking at her once more, he shrugged and went back to stuffing his face with the breakfast, as Chloe's laughter filled the loft.  
  
  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Chloe, I cannot believe the day we have had!" Brady said slumping into one side of a booth at The Hudson Street Diner.  
  
"Well the day is only half over Brady, there is still plenty more to do!" Chloe said smiling at him softly as she slid in across from him, a princess crown securely placed upon her head and a stuffed teddy bear under her arm.  
  
"First the single greatest breakfast ever, pancakes from the pub, then there happens to be a carnival in town!"  
  
"I can't thank you enough for winning me this bear." She said hugging the bear to her chest.  
  
"Well, I know you've always wanted one, so…I'm just glad I could give it to you. And we're lucky that I could beat those basketball hoops on the first try! I am the king!" He said pumping a fist into the air as Chloe began to laugh.  
  
"Well then I my lord, must be your queen." She said touching the crown on her head, as she looked deep within his eyes.  
  
"Always…" He said placing his arms on the table and leaning forward, his eyes locked with hers, her small pink tongue darting out across her lips as she herself leaned forward.  
  
"Now what can I get for you." Faye Walker said coming up to the booth, as Brady silently cursed ever Walker for even existing, from Faye right down to her whorish daughter Nicole and everyone in-between. He had been so close.  
  
Shaking her head, Chloe turned to the waitress. "Well he'll have a BLT, cut diagonally and made perfectly with toasted white bread crisp lettuce, ripe tomato, fresh mayonnaise, coleslaw on the side and anything but turkey bacon." Chloe said as she turned to bread and smiled smugly as he stared on in awe.  
  
"Okay, and what will he have to drink?" Faye asked smiling at the happy couple, it was obvious to her, and to everyone else at the diner that they were completely in love.  
  
"He'll have a coke. And me, well I'll have a coke and some toast, no butter please." Chloe said smiling as Faye nodded her head and walked away.  
  
"Chloe are you sure you don't want anymore? I mean you didn't eat breakfast with me, you didn't have any of my cotton candy or popcorn at the carnival, and now you're just having toast." Brady asked his eyes showing with concern.  
  
"I had a big breakfast, don't worry, I'm just not hungry yet. You know how Nancy is, she'll stuff you until you explode." Chloe said reassuring him. "Besides I am just saving room for the Mocha Chip ice cream I plan on getting later today, as well as the special dinner I have planned for us!"  
  
"Chloe are you sure you are all right?" Brady asked, not buying into her explanation.  
  
"Of course. Now, we've done the carnival, we've done bowling, we're getting BLT's. So, how about after this we head out roller blading, we haven't done that since last summer, maybe even a little game of one on one, or we could go to the movies, A Man and a Woman is playing, we never got the chance to see it initially, so I say lets go today! And then after that, we'll of course need to get the ice cream, because what is a nice spring evening with you unless there is some sort of ice cream involved? And then after that, we'll head out for that special dinner I've got planned."  
  
"Chloe, I hate to say this, but I'm kind of wiped." Brady said reaching across the table and taking her hand.  
  
"God, I blew it didn't I?" Chloe asked looking up at the ceiling, unaware of the tears filling her eyes. "I tried to hard."  
  
"No! This has been probably the greatest day I have ever had! Being with you is always special. It's just, it's not like we have to cram the rest of our lives in one single day, right?" Brady asked smiling as his thumb ran circles around Chloe's hand. And upon hearing those words, Chloe's head dropped and her eye's met Brady's, and for the first time in what seems like his life, Brady couldn't recognize what was going on behind them. His smile slowly fading, Brady was hit with what felt like a ton of bricks. Slowly pulling his hand from hers, he looked into her eyes, noticing as one single tear traced down her pale cheek. "Oh my god, you did try too hard. You haven't been yourself all day. You're doing all this be-because something's wrong."  
  
"Brady no." Chloe said trying to hold back the tears.  
  
"Something's terribly wrong. Chloe, do you…"  
  
"Have leukemia." Chloe finished dropping her head. "I have leukemia. And they're not certain of how long I have left, a few months, maybe a year. They, they caught it very late. And unless there's a tissue match…I just wanted us to have one good day out in the sun, together. You know?" Lifting her head Chloe stared straight ahead at Brady, whose head was ducked as well, but she could see his body shake ever so slightly, with the tears she knew were not only for her, but also for him and his mother as well. "This isn't how I wanted you to find out, you didn't deserve it like this." Chloe continued, despite the tears that continued to fall. "I just wanted to have one perfect day with you. So we could always remember how it was. Because, I just need you to know Brady, that I lo-"  
  
"Okay, and here we go." Faye said putting down the food filled plates in front of each of them. "And you two just let me know when you need anything, okay?" She said walking away, the waitress once again having broken the spell. Finally looking up, his faced stained with tears, his shoulders still shaking slightly, Brady reached across the table once more, past the BLT, which he knew he would never eat again without thinking of this moment, past her toast, which he knew she would never be able to hold down, wondering if she'd ever be able to hold down anything again once the radiation had taken control of her body. Reaching up he placed his hand on the crown and pulled it off her head, tracing his fingers along the silken strands that lay there, knowing that soon the wouldn't, as he placed the crown down on the table. Reaching up he took her arm, and tracing the inside he burned into his mind what it looked like, before it would be marred with IV's and other needles. He slowly dropped his fingers down to her palm, and laced her fingers within his own, needing the warmth that lie there. Finally his eyes landed on her own. The cerulean blue he knew so well, no longer looked the same. They were older, harder, and filled with fear. But he looked deeper, and saw the woman he loved. The one who's hand he would hold when the chemo therapy became too much, the one who's hand he would hold in the hospital, awaiting the bone marrow he prayed would reach her. The one who's hand he held now, rubbing reassuring circles on the soft yet sickly pale skin. Hoping that for now, that that would be enough. Because that was all he could offer at the moment. His comfort and love, as the love of his life sat before him, slowly dying, just as his mother had all those years ago. And as before there was nothing he could do about it. But he would be there. No matter what. Even if he was just holding her hand in a crummy diner over an uneaten plate of BLTs. 


End file.
